Life-preserver and swimming-machine.



. LYON & W. H. YOUNG.

LIFE PRESERVER AND SWIMMING MAGHINB.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20.1909.

Patented May 10, 1910.

w mu OSCAR B. LYON, OF MTARICOPA, AND WILLIAM H. YOUNG, OF IVIODESTO,CALIFORNIA.

LIFE-PRESERVER AND SWIMMING-MACHINE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, OSCAR B. LYON, a citizen of the United States,residing at Maricopa, in the county of Kern, State of California, andl/VILLIAM H. YoUNe, a citizen of the United States, residing at Modesto, in the county of Stanislaus, State of California, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Life-Preservers andSwimmingMachines; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled inthe art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of referencemarked thereon, which form a part of this application.

This invention relates to improvements in means for navigating thewaters and particularly to a means for permitting persons who are unableto swim'to readily propel themselves through the water, either forpleasure or for necessity, as for instance, when shipwrecked or thelike. The main features of the invention whereby this object isaccomplished is set forth in Letters Patent No. 885212 and this presentinvention merely relates to improvements over the structure shown in theabove patent, the object of such improvement being to provide a lifepreserver and swimming machine similar to the above one referred to, butthe same being adjustable to all sizes and weights of persons. Also toproduce a simple and effective mechanism for the purpose. These objectswe accomplish by means of an airtight compartment having a forwardlyprojecting keel formed of two members, one movable within the other, adriving means in the end of said keel, a propeller shaft formed in twopieces, one movable within the other, said shaft being adjustablevertically also, a propeller on said shaft, a pump for pumping waterinto said compartment, an outlet air valve from said compartment and anoutlet water valve from said compartment. We also employ such other andfurther structure and relative arrangement of parts as will more fullyappear by a perusal of the following specification and claims.

In the drawings similar characters of ref-' erence indicatecorresponding parts in the several vlews.

Figure 1 shows a swimmer using our 1m- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 20, 1909.

Patented May 10, 1810. Serial No. 508,650.

proved device. Fig. 2 is a horizontal vertical section of the improvedmachine.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference 011 thedrawings 1 designates an air tight compartment adapted to be strapped tothe trunk of the body by means of straps 2, such compartment 1 having arearwardly projecting guard memher 3 to protect the body from injuryfrom the propeller or other things. Also there is a front guard member 4for the same pur- 'pose.

Projecting forwardly and downwardly from the compartment 1 is a keelformed of two members 5 and 6, the member 6 having a tongue 7 slidablewithin the member 5 for the purpose of adjust-ing the length of saidkeel, any fixed position desired being maintained by means of a setscrew 7 projecting through the member 5 and adapted to impinge upon themember 7. This adjustment permits the handles 8 of a driving mechanism 9to be maintained in convenient reach of the operators hands. whether hebe long or short armed. The driving means 9 drives a propeller shaftformed of two memhers 10 and 11 slidable one within the other to conformto the movement of the member 6, any fixed position being maintained bymeans of a set screw 12, said shaft also be ing capable of verticaladjustment by reason of an arm 13 slidable within the member 14 andhaving a set screw 15 to maintain the fixed position, this adjustmentbeing necessary to conform to the adjustment of the keel so that allparts may maintain the same relative position.

16 is the propeller carried by the shaft 10-11.

Normally the compartment 1 is full of compressed air which, of course,under certain circumstances might be too heav as for instance, in thecase of a person of heavy weight. To overcome this a portion of the airfrom said compartment 1 may be let out to the atmosphere through arelief air valve 18 and if it was then too buoyant water as ballastcould be pumped into the compartment through a water pump 17 and shouldtoo much ballast be thus acquired a portion of the water could bereleased through an outlet water pump 19. Should the swimmer besubmerged under water and need air, he could readily inhale a portionfrom the/compartment 1 through a mouth valve 20.

The above described device can be built single or in tandem fashion, asdescribed.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that We haveproduced such improvements over the above mentioned patent assubstantially fulfils the objects of the invention as set forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form a departure from the spirit ofthe invention.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new and useful anddesire to secureby Letters Patent is 2- 1. A swimming machine comprisingan air tight compartment, a keel thereon, a driving means on said keel,a shaft driven by said driving means, said shaft being adjustablehorizontally and a propeller on said 1 shaft, such propeller beingadjustable vertically, as set forth.

2. A swimming machine comprising an air tight compartment, means forpropelling said compartment through Water, a water intake pump on saidcompartment, a water outlet pump on said compartment and an air outletvalve on said compartment.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

OSCAR B. LYON. WVILLIAM H. YOUNG.

lVitnesses as to the signature of Oscar B. Lyon:

WM. B. GRIFFIN, PERCY S. WEBSTER. lVitnesses as to the signature oflVilliam H. Young:

C. S. ABBOTT, A. GRIFFIN.

